ROM: Revolution #1 review

ROM is from a planet called Elonia, and fled when the Dire Wraiths came. He joined a force called the Solstar Order to combat them, and became an elite Space Knight: tasked with protecting worlds from the Wraiths. They failed, though. The Dire Wraiths are too much of a threat; with ruthless and driven warriors that destroy worlds with no mercy.

This one-shot comic is a tie-in with the Revolution crossover from IDW Publishing, consisting of Hasbro properties such as Transformers, G.I. Joe, Action Man, Micronauts, and of course, ROM. Revolution is a series with five instalments and a number of crossover issues, with this being one of them. But is it any good?

There’s a shit ton of fighting, and not so much dialogue – meaning it’s a pretty pointless tie-in as it adds nothing to the narrative. It’s set before Revolution #1, and basically suggests that technology doesn’t work logically – things that didn’t work before suddenly comes to life after random tinkering. It’s silly.

There’s a somewhat unnecessary amount of flashbacks that could have been consolidated into lesser pieces, making the current story much easier to digest. It’s a scrambled form of storytelling that makes everything harder to follow. Sometimes consistency is a good thing, and we definitely feel as if it was needed in this particular issue.

Even the action left us longing for something more. The artwork was quite good, albeit a little messy at times; though we imagine that was the desired effect. We feel as if precise and almost surgical linework would suit these sets of characters and this particular universe more. Add this messiness to the non-structured storyline and you’ve got a shaky tie-in issue that feels like a waste.

If you’re after the full Revolution experience then we’d recommend reading ROM: Revolution, but that’s the only circumstance in which we’ll wholeheartedly recommend it.

4.8Disappointing

ROM: Revolution #1 is a tie-in issue for IDW's new Revolution crossover event, but is it any good? Not particularly.